Ninja of the Shadows: The Tale of Nara Naruto
by Erom Reven
Summary: Amongst other changes to The Hidden Leaf Village, Uzumaki Naruto is adopted as an infant into the Nara clan.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. This is fanfiction, and I have nothing to do with the actual storyline. This was written for pleasure; I'm making no profits whatsoever from it.

Author's Note: Well, as promised, I've started my rewrite of my two stories. I'll keep the original up for anyone who wants to read it. A lot has changed in both my world and the world of Naruto in the past 4 years. A lot of new information has come out, and we all probably just want Sasuke to go off himself in a big way for being a pest. Madara is a troll, and I honestly believe (and have believed since the realization that he was a bad guy) that Kabuto is going to be the real evil psycho end boss. Doesn't really matter. There are times where I'm sure we all have been fed up with the storyline, and I guess in a way that's the reason behind fanfiction. Anyways, I'm going to let you read now, as that's surely what you came here to do.

Remember, if you have any questions or comments on my stories or about me personally, feel free to ask away in a review or a private message.

**-Story Starts Here-**

"You get that baby, Shikaku. I don't care what Minato said about Jiraiya, Kushi-chan said she'd rather someone with children get him, and since that perverted old man has left anyway, and Mikoto-san says Uchiha-sama won't let her adopt Naruto, I figure we're the only ones that would do it."

Shikaku sighed. He stared at his wife from his comfortable position on the couch. It had been a month since the Kyuubi attack where the 4th Hokage, Namikaze Minato sacrificed his own life to seal the beast inside of his own son, who was currently named Uzumaki Naruto in an attempt to ward of Iwa and Kumo assassination attempts.

Currently, he was being cared for by the former Hokage, the legendary Professor and God of Shinobi Sarutobi Hiruzen. But the old man was just that, too old to care for a newborn child. He had asked his own son to care for him, but Asuma denied it as he didn't want to leave the Guardian Ninja yet. The old man had then thought to turn to his apprentices, Jiraiya and Tsunade. Jiraiya wanted to, but unfortunately, he couldn't due to the nature of his espionage. Maybe if Naruto had been older, but a newborn baby just wasn't meant to be cared for by one of the world's greatest spies.

Tsunade had given it a lot of consideration. She had always wanted children, and her apprentice Shizune was as much of a daughter to her as if she was her own. Shizune's training and raising had gone well enough that Tsunade had always wanted to actually adopt and raise a child.

However, as she had decided to take up the role of Hokage and spare her old sensei the burden and years off his life that would have come with the taking back up of the hat, she felt that she couldn't run the village as effectively or be a good mother if she had to divide her attentions. She would have gladly backed down from the position had there been any other real choice for Hokage, but Hiruzen had earned his retirement a thousand times now, and the other real candidate was Danzo. Tsunade resigned herself to become the 5th Hokage, becoming the first female the lead a major hidden village.

Hiruzen then searched amongst Minato and Kushina's friends. Uchiha Mikoto had recently given birth to a second child, and being the mother of what seemed to be the greatest prodigy the Hidden Leaf Village had ever created since Minato, otherwise known as Uchiha Itachi, didn't hurt her chances. What's more, is that Kushina and Mikoto had been great friends, even though their husbands had butted head many times. Fugaku, the Uchiha clan head had denied the chance to adopt Naruto, stating that he and Mikoto had enough children right now and didn't feel like handling the burden that was to come with two children that were going to be the same age.

Yoshino and Shikaku had been friends with Kushina and Minato. Shikaku had gone to the Academy with Minato, though the blonde had been younger than he and the rest of his classmates by two years. Yoshino had served with Kushina several times on missions. The two were like sisters. They fought like cats and dogs. After all, Kushina wasn't the neatest or shyest person ever, and Yoshino was a reserved neatfreak. However, the two complimented each other so well that they eventually got over what differences they had and became good friends. Sure, the two women had better friends, but when it all came down to it, they trusted each other completely.

The Nara couple had high hopes for getting Naruto. After all, they had just had a baby boy that could grow with Naruto. Shikamaru was twenty days older than Naruto and was being breast-fed. Kushina had mentioned several times that she wanted to breast-feed Naruto. And since Jiraiya had given up his claim to the boy, he was up for adoption.

"Yoshino, I've done told you, I can't get Naruto until Sarotobi-sama okays everything."

Shikaku should have known better than to have tried to doing what his wife had told him. It wasn't that he didn't want Naruto, it was that he just didn't want to continuously pester the former Hokage like his wife demanded. However, his wife simply glared coldly at him and pointed to the front door.

The deerkeeper nodded his head. His body was still sore from his battle with Kyuubi. He'd gotten lucky; the great beast had roared loud enough to create a shockwave that propelled the shadow wielder into a tree. The medical ninja had put him on medical leave for a month, giving him fairly light missions all things considered. He noticed that all of Minato and Kushina's closest friends were given "medical leave", which was really more or less Tsunade-sama giving them time to grieve the loss of their friends.

It wouldn't have helped if she had given them years. Minato and Kushina were gone forever. But, the child they left behind would forever be a symbol of his two parents' dreams, hopes, and desires as well as their fiery determination that drove them to be the best. Yoshino secretly hoped that the lazy streak her husband had would be broken by a child with Uzumaki Kushina's blood in it.

Shikaku walked out the house with his hands in his pockets, and Yoshino let herself give a small smile in success.

**-scene change-**

Hiruzen sat back in his rocking chair, rocking back and forth gently while cradling a small bundle on blankets in his arms. If one looked hard enough, they saw a blonde tuft of hair poking out, and one would realize that the former Hokage had a baby in his hands. Two children and a grandchild had already taught him much about childcare. Even still, things were always new. Asuma and Ren had been fairly quiet baby's, and his grandchild, Gin was no different as a baby.

Uzumaki Naruto, however, was every bit as loud as his mother ever was, and if he was a betting man, Hiruzen would say the infant could actually get louder. A sad smile graced the old man's lips. Kushina would have probably been proud of her son's lung capacity. After only a month of caring for the little one, he could clearly tell that he would be the spitting image of his father and mother, though he clearly had Kushina's personality and Minato's looks.

With an old long-callused finger, the grandfather-figure gently brushed against the now sleeping baby's whisker marks, which seemed to be the body change that a biju always left upon it's host. Kushina would have probably been jealous, as the Kyuubi only affected minor things, like how fur like her long red hair was. Hiruzen remembered Minato talk about it once, saying it was every bit as soft as a newborn puppy's hair.

The Professor looked upon the boy sadly. Here was the hero of the Hidden Leaf. His containment of the Kyuubi saved them all. Even had Kushina had managed to reseal the beast, it would have eventually reformed and there might not have been a way to stop it this time. However, from what he was hearing from the villagers, few people saw it that way. Most of the ones who did knew about Kushina's previous burden, her and Minato's marriage, and Kushina's pregnancy.

A knock on the door broke Hiruzen of his musings. He got up and with Naruto in hand, made his way to the nursery door. The former Hokage opened it, then held a finger to his lips to make sure the visitor stayed quiet.

"Ah, Nara-san. I was expecting you'd be back. Yoshino-chan is quite persistent, I see."

Nara Shikaku shrugged and nodded.

"She told me to come back with Naruto or not at all. I'm almost afraid she's serious, Sarutobi-sama," the deer-keeper replied with a joking grin. The old man returned it and nodded.

"I've thought it over. Yoshino-chan or Mikoto-chan, I'd feel would be best for him, and since Fugaku-san doesn't want him... You sure about this? Handling two kids at once can be quite difficult at times."

Shikaku nodded.

"We don't really even need to think about it. Every child needs a family, and rumors are starting to grow about what happened. Some villagers are going so far to proclaim him as the fox itself. I'm afraid that something horrible could happen to him if he's on his own. My clan backs me on this, even if some of them don't agree that we should adopt him fully. He'll have our lands to run around in, our children to grown with, and most importantly a family to protect him. Not to sound vain, but few people would mess with the Nara clan. We do tend to intimidate people with our shadow manipulation, and the fact that our clan has much to do with medicine creation here in the Land of Fire... he'd be as safe with us as he would be with the Uchiha clan. No one wants to have their medicine cost a fortune."

Hiruzen nodded, agreeing with this train of thought. The old man smiled, then slowly handed Naruto to the new father. Shikaku's eyes grew widely.

"You're serious? We can have him?"

The former Hokage nodded, looking overjoyed at the man's happiness.

"Yes. Take good care of him. I'll check in on him from time to time, as Tsunade and Jiraiya will also probably do."

The deer keeper nodded and bowed his head.

"I'll be on my way then. I'll come with some of my clansmen to get the stuff."

Hiruzen nodded, and felt in his heart that he had done the right thing as he saw Nara Shikaku nearly skip out the door. The former Hokage looked at the room with a frown, then shook his head as a single tear floated down his cheek. He left the room shortly afterwards, and the house soon after.

With one last glance, he left, knowing that Minato Namikaze and his wife would never come home to that house again.

**-scene change-**

Naruto had thankfully slept the entire way back to his home. Shikaku felt as nervously excited as he had when he first held Shikamaru, and right then he knew that he had made the right choice in adopting Naruto. He couldn't wait to tell Yoshino, which is why he burst through the door of their house with a large grin on his face that you couldn't beat off of him even if you had Tsunade's legendary strength.

Yoshino looked surprised, wondering what could make her usually lazy husband bounce with excitement, until she looked in his arms. In almost a second, the chunin woman grabbed the baby and smiled.

"So he's ours?"

Shikaku nodded happily, and she leaned over to him and kissed him fully on the lips.

"We've got two lovely baby boys." She took Naruto over to the large crib that Shikamaru was in, and picked him up as well. Naturally, Shikamaru slept through all of this.

Of course, the quiet was soon to be over. Yoshino barely heard it, but someone had slammed a door outside. Somehow, that had been enough to wake up the blonde infant in her left arm. When awoken, he did one of what three things infants did best. Screamed. Naruto's scream naturally woke up Shikamaru, who screamed in response, though much quieter.

Yoshino sighed as Shikaku came to her side. She handed Shikamaru to him.

"Let's try to get these kids back to sleep..." Yoshino said, and the two new parents began attempting to do just that.

Adopting a child? That's great. You save them from a harsh life where they grow up with next to nothing. Most orphans don't always succeed in life; they're born into hardships and they get into more as adult. Adopting changes their world, gives them hopes and dreams and a way to achieve them that might not have been previously possible.

Little did the two new parents know, though... adopting Naruto would change the entire world.


End file.
